NHS workload 'may deter' overseas doctors

NHS workload 'may deter' overseas doctors

Monday 20 August 2001 09.49 EDT
First published on Monday 20 August 2001 09.49 EDT

The British Medical Association has warned that attempts to recruit overseas doctors to the NHS might backfire unless steps are taken to help them adapt to the "mind-boggling" pace of health service life.

But the association welcomed an announcement that a global advertising campaign to attract clinicians to the UK is to be launched, saying that it was better to hire foreign doctors than to send NHS patients overseas for treatment.

The adverts, which will seek to recruit sufficient doctors to alleviate shortages in the UK, will be aimed at senior clinicians in industrialised countries like Britain's EU partners, Australia, Canada, the US and some Asian countries.

The NHS plan last year promised to employ 7,500 more consultants and 2,000 more GPs by the end of 2004, but there are concerns that it will be impossible to train enough doctors in the UK to meet that pledge.

The BMA has warned that the slower pace of the profession and "less onerous workloads" overseas would leave many potential recruits unprepared for the "stressful" conditions its says are widespread in the NHS.

It has called for "structured induction programmes and support" to enable newcomers to understand NHS practice and culture.

Dr George Rae, a senior member of the BMA council, said: "There are practical difficulties about contracts and salary packages to overcome. Many of our European colleagues find the pace at which we work quite mind boggling.

"And if we are recruiting at all levels, including doctors in training, we must offer our colleagues a worthwhile career structure and the right induction and support to enable them to succeed."

He added: "These recruitment efforts, must, of course go hand in hand with determined efforts to maintain the recruitment and retention of UK doctors."

The BMA support the drive to attract doctors from countries which have a surplus, he said. "It is far better to have overseas colleagues joining us, than to be sending our patients abroad for treatment."

Spain, Germany and Italy will be particularly targeted because they are understood to train more doctors than is needed for their national health care services.

The UK signed an agreement with Spain in November 2000 to promote closer working between the two countries. As part of this agreement, the first 63 nurses arrived in the north West of England in January 2000 to work in four NHS trusts.

The Spanish nurses initiative - which is regarded by ministers as a success - is being extended to medical staff through a pilot project also being led by the NHS north-west region.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "The biggest constraint the NHS faces today is no longer a shortage of financial resources. It is a shortage of human resources.

"We have promised an additional 7,500 consultants by 2004 to help ensure that patients get the fast, efficient treatment they deserve.

"To help us deliver this, as stated in the NHS plan, we will recruit from other developed nations where there are a surplus of trained doctors."